Wouldn't it be great if we could just simply roll the clock back to last S=spring and forget the last six months and the financial havoc that has brought so much devastation to dealers, suppliers and manufacturers. Who among us would have even attempted to forecast the impact of an economic downturn, and even if we did, nobody would have come close to predicting that our target audience would be so impacted.
Retirees currently enjoying the RV lifestyle and already owning an RV are not rushing in to trade them in. They are afraid to open their investment portfolio statements, and many don't. Those that do, are sick at the thought of losing all that they worked for in life.
Baby Boomers that got excited about the lifestyle and contemplated taking equity out of their homes to pursue their RVing dreams had disappeared from the landscape. If they are among the few that may still have equity in their homes, they are not taking it out for ANYTHING.
The fastest growing segment that everyone was getting excited about was the 35-55 age group where the campaign did an outstanding job of bringing the average age of an RV customer into the mainstream arena and a household fixture in many dealerships across the country.
Massive layoffs across all industries have impacted countless American families and they are all retrenching on any discretionary income as they see neighbors also losing their jobs and many of them losing their investment in the American dream - their home!
You don't stop advertising when times get tough, and that should hold true for the RV industry and all segments of it, if they can afford it.
Certainly the Go RVing campaign should stay active even though their revenues and expenditures will take a hit.
Marketing statistics and various reports clearly show that companies and organizations that advertise during a recession will significantly outperform those companies and organizations that choose not to advertise by some very wide margins. The RV industry competes with many other leisure endeavors seeking discretionary spending - let's not lose the momentum gained by the Go RVing campaign and let's not kill it - under any circumstances.
Let's continue to promote the industry we all love and hope that the New Year reverses all the negative statistics we have been fighting this year.
So the questions of the day as many of you head for Louisville is:
Where should the Go RVing campaign spend their money next year?
What prospects and customers should they be focusing on?
Is there a new type of prospect we should be seeking now that we have lost many highly qualified prospects this year?
What media should they use to get the message out in 2009 - television, print media or the Internet?
Let's see what you think - you are closest to the problem and may be the best people to suggest the changes that the industry is going to have to make in the program next year - because we have all just witnessed the Bursting of the Baby Boomer Bubble!